Love & Loss at Sea

My pet fish of nearly four years recently passed on to the next life.  He was a hearty fellow, who survived many trials and tribulations in his life (most involving bumpy holiday trips to Ohio from SC).  He was purchased on February 14 at Wal-Mart...he was encased in a hot pink cardboard box with a heart-shaped cutout so you could look in to see the fish.  When I walked by, I couldn't bear the thought of him sitting there alone and so of course I brought him home.


In my studio I have a wonderfully dated book, The Guide to Breeding Aquarium Fish, that I purchased a long time ago for collage material....within the pages are some bizarrely tinted & grainy photos of fish getting romantic and I was instantly drawn to it.  Perhaps because Professor Soggybottoms has been on my mind lately, and also because I was also craving a change in subject matter, I pulled it off the shelf and started cutting away.  Last night I began my new angelfish series (did you know, in the case of angelfish, the males are nice to the females during courtship & form long term relationships?  Once they've mated, if one of them dies or is removed from the tank, apparently they refuse to pair up again...)

 Here's a glimpse of the 'brand-new, fresh from the studio table mixed media works' (printmaking, painting, thread, type & found images).  They'll be exhibited for the first time on Saturday at the Handmade Market in Raleigh, NC.  Check out the artist featurette on their blog for Loose Tooth Studio!